So... Alright - The First Pitch: An Interview

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

Geoff sits down for a very special interview with Robert Whittaker, the Digital Marketing Manager of the Las Vegas Aviators. Then, he throws a pitch! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No Frills delivers. Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC Optimum Points on your first five orders. Shop now at NoFrills.ca. So, hey Jeff. It's an audio texture. So we're going to have some audio texture in this episode. Maybe the most requested piece, kind of episode I get from the audience for Saul Wright is interviews.

I've only done two in the past, one with my wife and one with a guy who walked across America who I found to be incredibly interesting. However, a third opportunity to interview someone has presented itself with someone I find similarly interesting. Robert, why don't you tell me, tell us the name, age and what you do for a living. Okay. I am Robert Whitaker. I am 27 years old, and I am a digital marketing manager

for the Las Vegas Aviators. Which is the, I guess the athletics AAA affiliate. Yes, we are the athletics, can't say Oakland anymore. Right, right, just the athletics. Yeah, we are the athletics AAA affiliate. You son of a bitch, how did you get this job? Well, actually, before we even get to that, what do you do? What does a digital marketing manager do?

So I run all of our social media. I help with the website. I handle all of our photography in stadium and outside of stadium. And I help design billboards around town as well. So you're a professional photographer, graphic artist, all rolled up into one. Yes.

Essentially. Yeah, I do about four people's jobs. How much of that is self-taught? All of it. Yeah. All of it. Yeah, I took a couple Adobe courses, and that's about it.

That's the only way to really. Yeah, everything else is self-taught and just trial and error. So what you're describing is a job that when I was 10 years old, if you would have told me it existed, that would have been the inflection point in my childhood where I then began a path to work

towards only having that job. You know, working for a baseball team. I didn't know that was a career path growing up, you know? And especially one where you get to be an artist and a photographer in the same. So how did you end up here? So I actually started with the team when I was 13 years old.

No, you didn't. I did, I started as a bat boy. Okay. And it was just on the field, picking up bats, getting the players water, making their Gatorade, and then that kind of shifted into other kind of jobs. Okay. My boss at the time actually, that's how I got the job. He rented an apartment to my grandfather in St. Louis all the way back when they were friends in

the 70s, 80s. Really? Yeah, so it really is a who you know kind of thing. So got your foot in the door as a bat boy. Yeah, got my foot in the door as a bat boy. I became really close friends with my boss who my grandfather knew, and he asked me to come on and be the sales runner. So I would take sales tickets all around town, deliver them to the hotels, to any businesses, and I did that for about four

years. And then at that time we actually closed down Cashman Field where we used to play, and we moved over here to this brand new ballpark, and I became the dock manager, and I was receiving all of our shipments, handling all of that business. Then I stepped into a promotion manager role. So I was in charge of all of the free giveaways that we do to fans and all of that. Okay. Then the social media,

digital marketing job opened up two years ago, and I had already built a really good relationship with everybody here. So I threw my application in, I expressed that I really wanted to do this, and they made me go through the full interview process. I was up against three or four different people, but having a relationship with the people

definitely helped out, and that's how I got here. So you're on your, if I counted correctly, you are on your fifth job with the people definitely helped out and that's how I got here. So you're on your, if I counted correctly, you are on your fifth job with the organization. Yes. Since you were 13 years old. Yep. Have you ever worked anywhere else in your life? No. Okay.

I actually did work at a movie theater for one day. I worked at a movie theater for one day and then it actually, I took that job the same week that they offered me the full-time position with the aviators. Okay. At the time it was the 51s. Okay. So.

So that was a big decision in your life. You're like, do I want to go to movie theater and continue on with the baseball team? Yeah, and I felt bad. My friend, he really put in a good word at the movie theater to get me in there. But I realized pretty early in my high school career that I probably wasn't going to get drafted. But baseball has always been a love of mine, so why not get paid to be in it professionally?

Do you ever lament what could have been if you'd worked at the movie theater? Um, I do. I do enjoy movies. I love cinema. But baseball has always been my passion. So you've been since a young kid, what do you play? What position do you play? I was a pitcher and third base.

OK. What were you better at? Third base for sure. What kind of heat do you throw? I topped out in high school at around 83. What was your best pitch? Probably Probably a fastball. Okay. The way that our high school coach worked is they only wanted us to throw fastballs and change-ups our first two years Uh-huh. And then that second year I actually ended up getting into technical theater working on all of the sets and lighting and sound and that took me out of

baseball really so yeah. So you got seduced by the allure of theater? I did I did yeah the arts the arts got me. Are you still involved in theater? I'm not I'm an avid fan. I go and watch it, but I am not involved. What is your favorite kind of theater? Are you like a musical guy? I'm a musical guy. Interesting. So that's what brought me in. The high school I went to, we actually were a really big theater department in the Vegas Valley. And what got me in was Mary Poppins. Interesting.

Yeah, we were the debut high school show of Disney's Mary Poppins. And then they came back the next year and we did the debut of Little Mermaid. And it kind of just rolled into a second passion. Do you have a favorite musical now? Man, I'm really big on Hamilton. I do love Hamilton. I still haven't seen it. Yeah, it's fun. I love the dichotomy of your two passions. It's equally interesting to

me because I've never given a shit about musicals my entire life. Okay. I was into, I like theater a lot, but then I married my wife who I didn't, who she kept this from, kept it very secret, but is huge in the musical theater. And since we got married and I can't escape, she has opened up my world to musical theater. And I now am a big fan of Hello Dolly, and obviously Phantom, she took me to see live in London, so I got the full experience.

And so I'm just dipping my toes into musical theater now and falling in love with it. It's a special art, it really is. It's not for everybody, but. But it could be. It can be, absolutely. If they open their minds, you know what I mean? Oh yeah.

But going back to your first passion, baseball. So you've grown up, you are from Vegas, I guess. Born and raised. Born and raised here. In Vegas, yes. And I bet you've seen such a, like people always tell me, you must have seen a crazy amount of change in the last 20 years in Austin.

And I have, but I can't come close to what you've seen in 27 years here. It has been a lot, a lot of change. Yeah. A lot of growth. We're running out of space here. Yeah, we're running out of water too, right? Yeah, that's a problem for the future for sure. Yeah, Lake Mead is drying up. You go there and you just see all of the water lines every single year. It's just getting worse and worse. But I love this place. I do.

I can't imagine living somewhere else. Really? So you're here for the long haul, then? I would love to be. Of course, if work takes me elsewhere, I'm open to it. But I do love this city. I got to be honest with you, Robert. I think it would be a shame if you didn't retire

from the aviators and have your entire career be the same paycheck essentially from the same company. That's like... Yeah, and I know it's not very typical that somebody my age sticks with the same job for so long. But I really do just, I love this organization. And I love that they, it's more like a family here. It really is.

These people have seen me grow up and it's been the exact same faces around the entire organization. Yeah, we do not have turnover. So you've known, well, if you got your first job here as a Batboy at 13, you've been working here more than half of your life. Yes.

You crossed the halfway point recently. I have, yeah, I did. So you've known a lot of these here more than half of your life. Yes. You've crossed the halfway point recently. I have, yeah, I did. So you've known a lot of these people for over half of your life. Yes. I mean, family is definitely an appropriate way to describe it, I would imagine. Oh yes.

How many people are a part of the organization? So full-time staff, we have anywhere from like 30 to 40 people full-time. And that spans from ticket 30 to 40 people full-time and that spans from ticket sales to a marketing department of three, food and beverage. We do have outsourced companies for those things but we have we have really kept the same the same people. I would I very rarely get an opportunity to see the behind the scenes of something like this and it's always so fascinating when I do, I very rarely get an opportunity to see the behind the scenes of something like this

and it's always so fascinating when I do and I know after tomorrow or in two or three days when I'm editing this I'm gonna think of a thousand questions related to the runnings of a baseball team that I forgot to ask you but I'm just gonna have to sit on and make you do another interview down the road. But uh, How does a kid who grows, let me ask you this. What's your favorite baseball team? I am a Boston Red Sox fan. Really?

My dad is from Lawrence, Massachusetts. Okay. And that has just been my team since I can remember. And you didn't give up on them when they traded Mookie Betts? I did not, I can't. Okay. I am a diehard. Because that was the moment for a lot of people.

Oh yeah, I'm a diehard Red Sox fan. I am here for it, just like everybody else in Boston and that New England area, so. I don't care about the Red Sox personally, but I'm a diehard Celtics fan in Texas. As am I. It must be equally weird for you to just have people constantly go like,

why do you like the Red Sox? You live in Nevada. Oh yeah. How did you become a Celt Sox? You live in Nevada. Oh yeah. How did you become a Celtics fan? I hear my, I hear every day from people. So I'm actually gonna bring something else up really fast. Okay, go for it. You just mentioned it and you mentioned it

more than a few times in your Reno Three Ways episode. Okay. You pronounce it Nevada. Nevada? Nevada. Not Nevada. No. So it's like a New Orleans New Orleans thing Yes, does it earth the hell out of you? Um, it didn't at first. That's great. I need you. Yes, absolutely

I get that and yes, by the way I'm going to do my best to remember that and probably forget it pretty and that's okay I it's a lot of people do say Nevada. Uh-huh and It's it's kind of just a pet peeve of everybody that is in Las Vegas and Reno. But I mean, it really doesn't make a difference. It doesn't. I just, I had to mention that. No, I'm glad you did.

Yes. I had the same thing when I, when I, early on in Rooster Teeth we would go to Australia a bunch and we went to Melbourne a lot and there they pronounced it Melbourne. And it annoys the hell out of them when you pronounce it Melbourne. And so I've made it an effort for the rest of my life to pronounce it. And I think I'm pretty good. I've gotten pretty good at saying Melbourne. And then I grew up, spent about two years growing up in New Orleans, and so I experienced that,

and they are very serious about it down there. I do not like any different permutation. And so I'm gonna commit, I'm gonna commit to Nevada. Because I come to Vegas a lot, actually, so I should get it right. Nevada, okay. You're a kid growing up in Nevada without a professional sports team. You fall in love with the Boston Red Sox.

Yes. How does that happen? Like I mentioned before, it was my dad. My dad, he instilled that in me from a young age. He moved out here pretty early in his age. I think he was seven or eight. Oh wow, okay. My mother's from St. Louis.

She also moved out here at around four years old, I believe, and- But you decided not to like the Cardinals? So I kinda split it up. They're my national league team. Okay. If they're in the playoffs and the Red Sox are not, then I root for them.

If it's the Red Sox Cardinals World Series like it has been a few times, it's Red Sox all the way. You're allowed to like one from each league for sure, that's fine. So have you ever been to a Red Sox game? I have not. Fenway Park is one of my bucket list items that I really want to experience. Do you ever get to travel with, or have you ever traveled with the team? Not yet. I have ever traveled with the team? Not yet, I have not traveled with the team yet. Seems like something a digital marketing manager

could work out a few. Yeah, and it's, the last social media manager we had traveled to a few games here and there. I haven't, I guess I just haven't put it in my boss's ear that I would like to do that. But it's definitely something that is in the future and it will be happening. I'm going out of town this coming week and I would have loved to go to Sugarland to see us play them because we are five games away from clinching the first half first place and when that happens

The champagne gets popped the players really make it a big thing Yeah, and I would have I would love to be there for that moment. Yeah, so I'm hoping that that our team can continue it's it's great season and we get that second half first place as well because how closely does your organization work with the athletics? Because they're in the process of breaking ground any day now, I hear, on that stadium. Yes, next Wednesday they'll be breaking ground. Oh, really? Yeah, next Wednesday.

OK. And we work pretty closely with them. It's mainly our media director that works with them the most. When it comes to social media and things like that, they really pay us no mind. The athletics kind of do their own thing and they're very happy that we're doing well this year. They've stated to us that they want to see us

continue to do well. And I think they want obviously a baseball presence in Las Vegas. You guys are priming the pump for them. Yes, we are. Not all the locals are happy about it, but it's an exciting thing for a major league sports organization to be here. Dude, I have managed to somehow spend my entire life

living in cities without professional sports teams. So the idea of having a professional, I mean I guess in Austin we have the Austin FC, the soccer team now, but not to slight that, I go to games and I enjoy it, but when I think of what it meant to me to live in a, as a child to be near a professional team, it was baseball, football, or basketball.

And so the idea to be close to a professional baseball team is, would be a dream come true, but then to even have one move in, like I keep thinking Austin's the 11th largest city in America, like surely at some point, they're gonna give me a team. Yeah. But I don't think they are,

I don't think it's ever gonna happen. So I guess I don't understand what the backlash would be from the locals. It's mainly the money to fund the stadium. Oh yeah, it always comes down to money I guess. And taxes and things like that going to a billionaire owner that probably can afford a stadium. But obviously that's not how politics work that probably can afford a stadium,

but obviously that's not how politics work and that's not how moving a team from one city to another. Well, I feel it's like, it seems like it's a part of a larger concerted initiative, and I don't have any inside knowledge, it's just what I read, but from Las Vegas in general to, I guess, promote and elevate sports. I mean, they went and got the Raiders, they've got the Aces.

Oh yes. There's a lot of rumors. I don't know if you follow basketball, but Vegas and Seattle are, the big rumors Vegas and Seattle are going to get the expansion teams next year or the year after. And we have, we've heard rumors of a casino being built with a separate basketball arena attached to it. Really? And the idea is that that's what's going to pave the way for us to get a basketball team.

And it all started with the Golden Knights, I guess. Yes. They were the first ones. Absolutely. And that's been great. I mean, the Knights, everybody in hockey hates them, but it's something that us Las Vegas locals hold near and dear.

And I can't say that they were my first team. I have been a Boston fan all the way, besides football, I'm not a Patriots fan. Are you paying attention to the NHL finals at all? A little bit, yes. So weird for me to see Marsha on scoring goals for the Panthers. It's just like, I haven't gotten used to that yet. Yeah.

So, 27 years old, you've been here more than half your life. How long is it going to take you to run the organization, do you think? That would be a dream. I would love that. With new ownership coming in recently, they definitely want to keep it the same for a while. I know that our president and our GM, they've been around for with this organization longer than I've been alive. They definitely, they were instrumental in getting this brand new ballpark built. Yeah.

And trust me, I would love to take this over. I really would. I have a lot of ideas that I would love to see come to fruition. Yeah. But for the time being, I'm definitely happy where I'm at. And just working on my resume so that when the athletics do show up, maybe that is when I make my aviator's retirement and I can make a jump to major league baseball. Wow. I haven't known you for longer than about an hour,

but I got to be honest with you. I feel like it's already a bit of a foregone conclusion. You seem like a very capable and Driven young man, and I don't imagine you're gonna let anything stand in your way. Well, I appreciate that I really do I have I've always tried to have a really great work ethic and It's it's easy to do that when you love the job that you have. I don't consider this a job. I really don't. This is just, I'm excited to come here every day.

I'm excited to be a part of Major League Baseball in any kind of way. I was going to ask you earlier, and now I don't know if I want to know, but surely it can't be all wine and roses. There has to be a part of your job. You're like, ugh, I got to do it. But if there is, I don't know if I wanna know, but surely it can't be all wine and roses. There has to be a part of your job where you're like, ugh, I gotta do it. But if there is, I don't wanna know it because I don't wanna spoil the illusion

that this is just an adult playground. I know there's so much hard work. It's the same thing with, I deal with a mic or people are like, hey, you just play video games for a living. And it's like, that's part of it, yeah. It's all this shit that goes on behind the scenes that makes it look easy that is hard. And I'm sure that there's a wealth of that here, but how many baseball games do you think you've seen in your life?

Oh, goodness. Wow, that's a hard question. Yeah. I would say I'm probably close to touching a thousand. God. It's a lot. I mean, we have 160 games a year here. Well, we have 74, 75 here, not including the playoffs.

And then I'm also, I watch all of our away games as well because I need to keep our socials updated whenever we score or anything like that. That's not including major leagueball that I've gone to and but so I would say I'm touching a thousand probably at this point. But I enjoy it every time. Baseball is something that's special. It's a game that's always changing. Especially the last couple of years. Yeah. Evolving pretty quickly. Especially with minor leagues.

We are the testers for all of the changes to come with Major League Baseball. We've had the pitch clocks for going on almost 10 years now. Yeah. We have the replay. Get the challenge. Yep. Yep. The challenge replay. That'll a challenge. Yep, yep, the challenge replay. That'll probably be up in the majors next season.

And I mean, I think it's great. It keeps the umpires accountable. It really, they don't seem to enjoy it, but from what I've heard, it's about, our challenges are about 55%. Oh really? Yeah. Wow, that's pretty good. Yeah. Who's your favorite

baseball player? Honestly, from the time he came into the league I've always been a really big fan of Jason Hayward. Okay. I could always say David Ortiz, the Red Sox, Legends, things like that, but I've always been a big fan of Jason Red Sox, Legends, things like that. But I've always been a big fan of Jason Hayward. I know his career has kind of taken a bit of a dip. But he is definitely one of my favorite players. Have you ever met him? I have.

Really? I have. So we host big league weekend for spring training every year. And we usually have two weekends where we have major league teams come in and they do a spring training game. And I've been fortunate to meet a lot of major league players. I would imagine given your job too, and just, they've got to be coming through because they're either you're catching them coming up, right?

Or you're catching them rehabbing an injury, but they're always kind of coming through Yeah, I have a revolving door in triple-a baseball for people who don't know. Yes is the last stop before a Promising player makes it to the majors and then this is the first place that professional players come to rehab rehabilitate from injury or Work on things typically and so I I always wondered that's gotta make the consistency of competing a little bit difficult at the minor league level, right? Because I feel like the roster's changing constantly.

Oh yeah, just this year we have had probably over 100 transactions. Really? And we have lost a lot of our pretty prominent players that got us to the point where we're at. They were sent up to the majors, they made their debuts. And then when those players get sent back down, it's usually they get designated for assignment, which means they have to clear waivers in order to come back to us.

And unfortunately, we've lost three players in the last month to other teams that want these guys because they see the potential that they have. That's gotta be kind of the, one of the best and worst parts of the job is that as an entity, you're here to help facilitate the growth of these world-class athletes. And to get to be a part of their journey has gotta be really gratifying.

But you're also a storied team in your league that wants to compete and you know, you guys aren't moving up and down. You guys, this is like you said, this is a family, you know. And so I guess it speaks pretty highly to the organization that runs it, the coaching staff, probably the medical staff, the training staff that's able to consistently compete at a high level with a constantly rotating and changing lineup. Yeah. I can't imagine the headache that that is when you wake up and you're like, I don't know.

I don't know who batters three through seven are going to be next week. I don't know who's going to be on the team. Yeah. And that does make it, it makes it more difficult on our media director. Sometimes he'll get, there'll be a call up 20 minutes before the game starts. And that means that that roster is changed,

and he needs to put out a press release right then and there, 20 minutes before a game where he needs to be doing something else. He is constantly up there in his office, kind of going crazy. But he... That's gotta take years off your life, a job like that. And he's been with us for, again, longer than I've been alive. He has probably been here two of my lifetimes.

And he just plugs away at it every day and I appreciate him so much because he gives me all of the updates before I see it on the athletics Twitter or something else anywhere else that I could possibly see it and it's great it's a great relationship that I have with him because he has a great relationship with coaches staff and all of that. Mm-hmm so it really it all has to work in cohesion to really Be able to work. Yeah, I mean it's

It's it's a struggle in order to really get all of the information out there without Without kind of spilling the beans before the athletics do. Layers of complexity there. Yes. And also those are mistakes that if you made that can cause big problems. Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Those are like lose your job kind of problems pretty quickly, I think, yeah.

Really force you to stay on your toes. Do you ever, given that baseball is your first love and you've been a fan your entire life and you've been, you've seen over more than a thousand games or around a thousand games and this is definitely in every way your passion. I feel similarly about basketball, specifically about the Boston Celtics. I watch summer league into preseason, into the season, into an 82 game season,

into a deep playoff run that hopefully goes to the finals, and then you have like a month off, and then it's back to summer league, and it just never ends. And even as someone who, the sun rises and sets on the Celtics for me. But even given that amount of like love and obsession that I have with them,

there are some times when I'm so sick of basketball. I just like, I appreciate July, because it's like, I don't have to think about it anymore. When the Celtics got eliminated early in the playoffs this year, it was heartbreaking, but it was also kind of like, oh, I feel like I get a vacation from an intense amount of fandom.

Do you ever get sick of baseball? Oh, there's constant burnout. Really? Yeah, absolutely. I went through it about two weeks ago. I just, I would get in and I would get out there in the heat and it's just, it gets to you. It really does.

And I mean, some of these games, they move along and they're pretty quick, but other times they drag. I think it's gonna be like 110 on the field out here. Oh, it is. It's rough out there. And thankfully today is our last day game for a while. Gets too hot out here to be playing day games.

So it's all night games and it cools down at night, but the weather affects it, and just baseball in general. It does start to wear on you. Yeah. Yes, absolutely. What is the day, what is Robert's work day like? When do you get in on a game day?

Actually a game day and a non-game day, I'd love to hear both, like how it's different. All right, so we'll start with Mondays. Mondays are off days for our office staff because it's a team travel day. Every Monday our teams are traveling to wherever they need to be, whether it's back here. So you'll never have a Monday home game?

No. Well, that's not entirely true. We did have one on Veterans Day because Major League Baseball likes us to play on Veterans Day because Major League Baseball likes us to play on Veterans Day. Yeah. So that week they got the next week's Monday and Tuesday off because the players are always needing at least one day

for a break, a travel day, something like that. So occasionally we will have a Monday. But on a typical Monday, I will try to work from home if possible. If there are pressing things that I really need to do, I will get in here probably around 9, 10 a.m. and I'm here until about 5 p.m. So typical 9 to a.m. okay and I'm here until about 5 5 p.m. so typical 9 to 5 during a game day again if it's a pressing day I will get in at 8 8 30 9 a.m. and I will be here until about two hours after the game is over and our games start at 7.05 and they're usually ending around 10. Okay. So I will I'll be here until midnight. Really? Yes. And what are you

doing during the game? So during the game I am taking photos of the action. I am updating our score real-time. If there is- On social media. On social media, yeah. Mainly Facebook and Twitter. So that we get live in-game updates all through our MLB research app that we have. Constantly tweeting our score updates. If we have promotions going on, I'm taking videos,

making content with fans, with our giveaways, things like that. So are you doing all the video, you're editing as well? You really are like a one man operation. Yes, I am a one man. Do they understand how much they're asking of you? As somebody who works in this industry, you're doing a lot. You're doing a lot for one guy.

I really don't think that they, I don't think social media in general has ever been a big thought to our C-suite people. To most C-suite people, yeah. And I'm trying to make it so that they understand that it's a big part of marketing nowadays and it's free marketing. It is.

We don't, of other minor league teams, we are not paying for views. We are not paying for anything. We throw some ads out there, but typically we are not boosting our posts to get more people to see it. We are trying to be completely organic. And I'm trying to show the value that social media has

from getting our YouTube up and running to getting monetized on TikTok and Instagram and Facebook. And it's starting to open their minds a little bit more to it, but it's a difficult task. It's the uphill battle of social media in general to be taken seriously at a corporate level. Do you ever take batting practice?

Yes, absolutely. Do you really? I do. We, I, when the team isn't here, I'll go down to our batting cages and I'll just throw a tee up and I'll just, I'll just go at it. Why not?

It's there, so. There's a fringe benefits of working here. Yeah, absolutely. That's a fringe benefits of working here. Yeah, absolutely. That is awesome. Yeah. How much coordination or connectivity is there between all the different sports and leagues in Vegas? Like, do you guys consider yourselves part of a larger family?

Is it a healthy competition for? So, it's a little hard for us on the competition level, like when we're trying to compete ticket sale wise to the Golden Knights or the Aces. And we have, there's new sports leagues popping up every year. We have a professional lacrosse team. We have an indoor football league. We have the Silver Knights, the Golden Knights affiliate. So it's kind of competition in a way.

We definitely try to make it a family kind of thing where we're all looking out for each other and we're all helping each other out. We've had, just this year we had a Las Vegas Aces night where we gave away co-branded jerseys. That's awesome. We have a night coming up with the Golden Knights where we're giving away co-branded jerseys and all of these things kind of just work together. We work closely with the other teams.

When the Raiders moved here, we also did a co-branded jersey with them for a giveaway. And there's so much that goes into it. There's a lot of, it's a lot of work. I'll put it that way. I can imagine, yeah. It must be nice though because there's Roberts that exist over on the

Silver Knights and the Golden Knights and all these other teams that are some of the only people on Earth who understand the difficulties of what it is to do your job. It must be nice to, I don't know, be able to have those peers out there amongst you that you can kind of interact and work with. It's definitely been nice to get to know those people and really try to understand what they're doing as well. And it's a lot, it's, again, it's a lot. There's so many people that work in other departments

with the others. I don't know how many Roberts there are. In these professional organizations, they do have full teams. Even in minor league baseball, I went to my first winter meetings, kind of, we have a fall meetings, and I learned that I am one of the only people that are asked to do everything. Most teams have two interns, two full-time people on their marketing teams, and I am a lone wolf. You're indispensable is what you are, Robert.

I like to think so as well. I appreciate that. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I can that. Absolutely. Yeah. I can't wait to come back and visit someday when you're the president of this organization. That would be a dream, honestly. I would love that. I would, and I'd love to have you back out here.

Dude, I genuinely, I mean, like I said, we haven't known each other very long, but I genuinely get the vibe that if that's in your sights, you'll get there. You seem like such a, I said it earlier, but driven young man, but I can see it. I can definitely see it. Thank you, thank you so much, Joe.

Yeah, no problem, man. And thank you for the opportunity to come out here and do this. Oh, absolutely. We're gonna get you out there to throw that first pitch. Can I tell you something funny about this? I don't know if it's funny, but people keep telling me I need to practice, and I? I don't know if it's funny, but uh

people keep telling me I need to practice and I keep thinking yeah I need to practice, need to practice and then I pulled my arm and I thought maybe I should hold off on practicing for a little bit until my arm feels better and then I thought what if I just go in not having thrown a baseball in like a year and see what happens and so I haven't touched a baseball since you offered me this opportunity and And so I'm a little nervous, but I also feel like I just got to throw one pitch, right? That should be okay. Just one pitch. That's it. Just one pitch? Yeah.

Oh, I have one more question for you, Robert, if you don't mind. No, absolutely. And then I'll let you get back to your very busy day. What's your hot dog count? You know what? I have it. I don't have it have it, I don't have it memorized but I do have it written down. Oh, I want to know. I do. What's the hot dog situation here at the ballpark?

We have a great hot dog situation. All of our food in general is great. Yeah. But hot dogs, I will show you around, I will show you to the best hot dog that we have. But we have, we have a lot of different options. I can't wait to find out. Every home stand when a new team comes in, we do have an opponent dog, or we try to take influence from those cities and put them into a dog. Really? And we have an aviator dog, we have an aviator Ale Bratatwurst. We have... And we do the same thing with burgers.

We do opponent burgers. We do opponent dogs. And everyone is different. That's very cool. So my hot dog count right now, I am at 24. Alright, that's a solid count. I am trying to... I know that if I keep up...

If I have a dog a game... You have an unfair advantage. Yeah, I do. I do. I will say, even given that, that puts you in second place in regulation right now. I mean, that puts you above Eric. Even without trying, you're sitting pretty high. I will take it. Robert, thank you so much for sitting down and talking to me.

I really appreciate it. I might have some follow-up questions for you. It wouldn't make it into the interview, but just for my own edification, because I genuinely, I was serious when I found out that this was your job, I got jealous. And I don't get jealous very often in my life. I feel pretty lucky that I've had a career that I recognize that a lot of other people would be jealous to have. So when I run into somebody who does something that I think like, oh I would give this career up in an instant to do what you do. Oh wow. It's just exciting to get to meet you and to spend a little bit of time in your world to see how it all operates. Well I'm excited that you

were able to do this and you invited me on for this interview. Hell yeah. Thank you so much. Absolutely and hey, thank you for becoming a regulation comment leaver set in stone for the rest of your life. It is, it's in interview form now. Robert, thank you. Thank you so much, Jeff. I really, really appreciate it, man.

It's an honor. It's an honor for me as well. Thank you. It goes both ways. Thank you. All right, let's go watch some baseball. Let's do it.